


pulling strings

by cabbage_s



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Character Death, Dark, Graphic Imagery, Halloween, M/M, Murder, Puppets, Unsettling, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:01:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27173492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cabbage_s/pseuds/cabbage_s
Summary: “Are you seriously scared of a toy? You, out of all people?”“The only thing I’m scared of is your severe lack of intelligence. Who willingly brings a doll into their house?” Donghyuck shot back. “You better burn that thing before it gains sentience and strangles us in our sleep!”
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 17
Kudos: 63
Collections: Challenge #2 — tricks; treats; and terrors





	pulling strings

**Author's Note:**

> click [here](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/37LB99jUMv8RofdmHhN0c0?si=iePTVaSmSM6bG4bABGh16w) if you want to listen to music while you read (:
> 
> thank you to nina for looking over this fic and the mods for organizing the fest!! and to you for taking the time to read this mess of a fic <3

“I think the _fuck_ not.”

Mark raised his head and gave his boyfriend a disappointed look. Donghyuck stood as far away from the marionette as physically possible, pressed up against a wall like a cornered cat.

“It’s been in the apartment for literally two seconds.”

“Two seconds long enough for me to figure out that I don’t want that Annabelle looking ass doll anywhere near me,” Donghyuck retorted. The wooden puppet sat upright in its glass box like a toy being displayed in a mall, smiling cheerily. 

“Are you seriously scared of a toy? You, out of all people?” 

“The only thing I’m scared of is your severe lack of intelligence. Who _willingly_ brings a doll into their house?” Donghyuck shot back. “You better burn that thing before it gains sentience and strangles us in our sleep!”

Mark sighed. “Listen, Donghyuck. This puppet is really important to my brother—”

“So lunacy runs in the family now?”

“—we just need to hold onto it until he moves into his new house,” Mark said, pointedly ignoring Donghyuck’s snarky remark. “Or at least until he wants it back. You only have to deal with it for a couple of days, okay? You’ll live.”

“Don’t jinx it,” Donghyuck muttered.

“In the meantime,” Mark continued, hoisting the box up with both arms and hobbling over to the guest room at the back of the apartment. “I’ll just lock it somewhere where it’ll never see the light of day, you won’t see it for the majority of time it’s here, and we’ll all be happy. Deal?”

Donghyuck merely pursed his lips. He reluctantly followed his boyfriend to the room and opened the door for him, watching Mark plop the marionette at the back of the room with a dubious expression. Mark placed his hands on his hips once he was done and studied the wooden puppet.

“Honestly? It’s kind of cute.”

Donghyuck gaped at him. “ _Please_ tell me you're kidding. God, you really reevaluate your definition of cute.”

“I think you’re cute. Still want me to reevaluate it?”

“Thanks," Donghyuck said dryly. "Nice to know I'm on the same level as a raggedy ann doll for you."

Mark flashed him a thumbs up. 

— 

  
  


By some miracle, Donghyuck managed to forget about the marionette until a few nights later. 

The two of them were already in bed, with Mark writing notes for a class as Donghyuck fiddled with his phone. 

Influenced by the sudden appearance of several food accounts on his Instagram feed, Donghyuck asked, “Hey, babe? Can you bring me one of the leftover pancakes from this morning?”

“I'm not your butler,” Mark sighed. "Get them yourself." 

“But I’m _busy,_ ” Donghyuck said. When Mark finally gave in after a halfhearted minute of arguing, Donghyuck blew him a kiss as thanks. “I love you!"

“No, you love bossing me around.” 

"And _you_ love being bossed around.”

With his boyfriend fetching him food, Donghyuck returned his attention back to his phone. He was scrolling aimlessly through frog tik tok when he heard three swift knocks coming from the wall behind him. Donghyuck ignored Mark at first, completely preoccupied by cute amphibians, but the knocking persisted until it became annoying. 

Deciding to play along, Donghyuck flopped onto his stomach and banged against the wall. 

“That’s morse code for ‘extra whipped cream!’” he called. 

“I better be getting paid for this!” Mark yelled back. 

Donghyuck froze. 

That was.... strange. Judging by the volume and direction of Mark’s voice, he was in the kitchen. Except that wasn’t possible. He couldn’t have gotten to the kitchen that quickly after knocking, because to knock against the wall he had to be in the— 

The guest room.

The room with the damned puppet.

A few minutes later, Mark returned with two plates of pancakes. 

“We ran out of whipped cream, but I— hey, what’s wrong?” Mark paused once he saw the look on Donghyuck’s face. “Donghyuck? Is it about the whipped cream? You can have some of mine if you want—”

Donghyuck swallowed a lump in his throat. “No, it’s just... Did you go into the other room by any chance?”

Mark raised a brow. “No? Why? What happened?”

“It’s nothing,” Donghyuck laughed nervously. “Must’ve been the neighbors.” 

"Are you sure?"

"Mhm," he said, faking a smile and pushing thoughts about puppets to the back of his mind. Donghyuck put a hand out. Mark grabbed it and gave it an encouraging squeeze. “...I was asking for the pancakes, idiot.” 

“Oh,” Mark said dumbly, cheeks hot. “Well, we can eat pancakes and hold hands at the same time, can’t we?” 

Donghyuck snorted in disbelief. 

“We could,” Donghyuck drawled. He pulled Mark onto the bed until he was caged between his arms. Donghyuck wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, tugging his boyfriend down so their mouths were just shy of touching. “But are you sure you _just_ want to eat pancakes, though?”

“Yes,” Mark joked. But he leant down to meet Donghyuck’s lips halfway anyways, pancakes and puppets soon forgotten. 

  
  


— 

  
  


That night, Donghyuck had a dream. 

The apartment was shrouded in darkness, empty and lifeless. The numbers on the kitchen oven read 2 AM before they, too, became swallowed into nothingness. 

There was a door sitting at the end of a hallway. He moved towards it, drawn like a moth to a flame. 

He raised his fist and rapped on the plastic wood. Three playful knocks answered back. 

The door swung open, revealing a second door made of glass. Except this time, there was someone else standing in front of it.

Mark. 

Mark had his back towards him. He was pressed tightly against the door like he was searching for something inside, body completely still. 

_“Mark?”_ he called out.

Mark didn’t react. Donghyuck whispered his name a second time. 

He twitched. Then his head twisted around with several wet snapping sounds, revealing a smile of plastic and porcelain— 

Donghyuck shot up from his bed with a gasp. He took in the familiar sight of his bedroom, heart pounding frantically in his chest. Once he recognized where he was, Donghyuck let out a shaky breath and held his face in his hands.

_A dream._

Mark was still sound asleep by Donghyuck’s side. He murmured something obscure about gnomes and blue cheese in his sleep, not even rousing when Donghyuck moved to brush his hair away from his forehead with a quivering hand.

_It was just a dream,_ Donghyuck thought, trying to calm himself down with this simple realization.

He was thirsty but too anxious to actually get a glass of water, so he melted back into the bed and pressed closer into Mark's warmth. Although he found himself fighting against the call of sleep, his body eventually surrendered into unconsciousness almost half an hour later. 

He didn’t notice that the bedroom door was open, a tiny sliver of space revealing the darkness of the hallway outside.

  
  


— 

  
  


When Mark was out for class one day, Donghyuck heard soft scratching coming from the guest room.

Something dragging against wood. 

Always in threes. 

Scratch. Scratch. Scratch. 

Donghyuck went to check what was making the noise, but the room was untouched. Everything was where it should have been. 

The puppet sat in its prison of glass and smiled cordially like usual. 

The scratching came back after Donghyuck sat back down at his desk. He put on a pair of headphones to block out the noise, but an ominous feeling haunted him until he fled the apartment and finished the paper in the nearby Starbucks. 

  
  


— 

  
  


Donghyuck dreamt he was trapped in a little glass box. Mark was sitting outside, but he didn’t see or hear Donghyuck pounding against the glass. 

_I'm here!_ Donghyuck screamed. _Mark, I'm right here!_

Mark walked away. Segmented, wooden hands descended from the ceiling and crushed Donghyuck into a bloody pulp. 

Someone was laughing. 

  
  


— 

  
  


“Can I ask you something?”

“No,” Doyoung said flatly. 

They were currently in the garage of Doyoung’s new house, surrounded by boxes of packing peanuts and bubble wrapped furniture. Originally Mark was supposed to come help Doyoung with the move too(hell, Donghyuck was only here because Doyoung was Mark’s brother and he was obligated to help), but he stayed home to finish some assignments for his class. 

“This is going to make me sound like a loser—” 

Doyoung interrupted him with a mocking laugh. 

“—but you know that puppet you gave us?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“No offense, but it really freaks me out.”

“It is a little creepy,” Doyoung agreed, handing Donghyuck another box. “Take this to the living room.”

“That, _and_ I’ve been having these dreams ever since Mark brought it to our apartment. I know this will make me sound insane, but when I’m alone I start hearing strange... noises coming from it?”

_“Noises?_ What kind of noises?”

“Like… I don’t know _._ Scratching. Knocking. Thumping. Weird shit. Mark doesn’t hear them at all, which is worse.”

“Huh. That never happened to me when I had it,” Doyoung thought to himself. “Do you think it’s haunted or something? Lemme know if it ever starts talking so we can videotape it and make some money off of it.”

“I’m serious, Doyoung,” Donghyuck whined. His voice dropped to a whisper. “I know this is all just my brain being a piece of shit, but… I don’t think I can take it anymore.”

Doyoung looked at him, the playfulness in his eyes fading away when he noticed the quiver in Donghyuck’s voice. His face softened.

“...I believe you. How about I get it off your hands? Now that I’m moved in I can probably take it back anyways,” he said. “You can give it to me tonight if you can.”

Donghyuck breathed out in relief and tackled Doyoung into a hug.

“Oh, thank _fuck_. Bless your soul, you beautiful, amazing, wonderful man—”

“Gross.”

“—I fucking _love you_ , dude. Even if you collect creepy ass dolls in your free time.”

Doyoung rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Now quit loitering around and take that to the living room already.” 

  
  


— 

  
  


Mark was watching TV when Donghyuck arrived back home a few hours later. 

He raised his head from the couch and waved lazily. “Hey, welcome back. How'd it go?” 

“Good. Great. Amazing,” Donghyuck said dismissively, rushing to take his shoes off. Mark gazed at him with curious eyes, noticing the fervor in his actions.

“I’m guessing the move went smoothly?”

“Yeah,” Donghyuck said, unable to focus on Mark's question. He could hardly think over the relief that he was finally, _finally_ going to be rid of the stupid doll that was haunting his dreams and making him act paranoid anytime he was home, where he was supposed to feel safe.

He bolted for the guest room, not giving Mark a chance to ask questions. He paused only to maneuver around Mark’s papers, which were scattered on the floor for god knows what reason. (Leave it Mark to throw his shit everywhere when there was a perfectly good table to use.) Donghyuck flung open the guest room door, beaming, ready to throw the puppet and its haunted ass the fuck out of his house.

“Sayonara, you ugly piece of driftwood—”

He stopped. 

The puppet was gone.

The glass box was empty, the door left ajar. As if whatever had been in it had left in a hurry. 

“What the fuck,” Donghyuck whispered into the silence. 

“What’s up?” Mark asked, coming up behind him. 

Donghyuck didn’t hear him. “No. No, no, no. It’s gone. It’s _gone?”_

Donghyuck pounced onto the empty case, examining it with trembling eyes. He shook it frantically. When the puppet didn’t magically fall out, Donghyuck began tearing the room up in a blind panic— yanking out drawers and throwing things around without any carefulness. 

Voice rising, “Where is it? Where the _fuck_ is it?”

“Where’s what?” 

Donghyuck whipped around, eyes wild. “The fucking _doll_ Mark! Where’s the fucking doll!”

Mark looked taken aback. “I— I— I don’t know? The—”

Angered at his boyfriend’s uselessness, Donghyuck let out a cry of outrage and shoved past him without waiting for him to finish.

The desperate search continued until Donghyuck had scanned every inch of the apartment three times. It was useless— the marionette was nowhere in the house. It had just... _disappeared_.  


The realization sunk in after Donghyuck had completely turned their apartment inside out. He broke out into tears in the middle of what used to be their living room, collapsing into a panicked heap. Mark finally approached him after watching his wild search from a distance and placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. 

“Where are you,” Donghyuck sobbed. He lifted his head and screamed, “Where the _fuck_ are you, you little bitch! Come out!”

“What happened?” Mark asked.

“It’s that fucking _thing_ ,” Donghyuck said, voice breaking. “It’s been driving me crazy this entire week. It keeps me up at night— wakes me up because of nightmares— freaks me out, makes me _hear_ things. I know it’s just my brain fucking with me, but I just want it out of this house, Mark! I want it _gone!”_ Donghyuck was halfway towards hyperventilating at this point, clutching onto Mark for stability. 

All the while, Mark was silent.

Then he snickered. 

Donghyuck watched in shock as Mark broke out into a fit of hysterical laughter. He released Donghyuck, clutching his stomach and giggling until he had tears in his eyes as well. 

“...What. The _fuck_. Are you doing," Donghyuck growled. 

“I’m sorry,” Mark wheezed. “I’m sorry, I just…. Did I really scare you that much?”

Donghyuck gazed at him, lost. 

Did I scare you that much, he said. 

...Did I scare you.

Did _I._

It clicked. 

“...It was you,” Donghyuck whispered. 

“I didn’t mean to freak you out that much,” Mark said between giggles. “I just wanted to scare you a little, I promise! I didn’t mean to make you go on a mad man’s search and tear up your house in the process. It was pretty funny, though.”

“It was _you!”_ Donghyuck screamed. He jumped to his feet. _“You’re_ the one who’s been messing with me!”

Mark broke out into more laughter, rolling around the floor. 

“It’s not fucking funny, Mark! Do you know how much sleep I lost because of that stupid fucking doll? Here I am, pissing myself over a damn toy when it's my _asshole_ of a boyfriend fucking around and trying to get a good laugh by being a supreme dickwad!” Donghyuck wasn't sure if he would be able to forgive Mark for this. No, scratch that. He definitely wasn't going to forgive Mark.

“No,” Mark sighed, finally recovering from his giggle fit. He got to his feet. “It wasn’t him. It was me.”

“What the fuck are you on about now?"

Mark smiled, face contorting. Donghyuck’s anger instantly gave way into something cold. 

That smile. 

That fucking smile. 

He’d seen it before.

Plastic and porcelain. 

Mark grabbed his stomach and retched. His body convulsed, a lump blowing up from his abdomen like a growth. The growth traveled upwards like there was a bug inside of his body trying to find a way out. The flesh around his mouth stretched to accompany occupied space, throat ballooning until Donghyuck could see his veins underneath. 

He retched again, the action pushing out a thin, wooden arm from his mouth. The arm remained suspended in the air like a blooming flower. Then a second arm squeezed out. Next a head, finally a torso. Tearing itself out from tongue and teeth, stretching flesh, sliding out until what was once Mark was a pool of skin on the floor. 

A wooden mannequin stood where Mark had once been, gazing at Donghyuck with empty eyes. And a porcelain, plastic smile. 

Donghyuck’s knees buckled. 

“What the fuck,” he whimpered. “What the fuck, what the fuck, what the _actual fucking_ fuck—” 

The mannequin took a step forward. Wobbly, like a newborn foal. Then it fell onto all fours and started crawling on the floor. Its head chittered, twisting back and forth tauntingly. 

Donghyuck felt like throwing up. He couldn't bring himself to move, body completely shut down. “Fuck, fuck, fuck—” 

The mannequin was now at Donghyuck’s feet. Five wooden fingers touched Donghyuck’s bare ankle and caressed the skin.

Donghyuck screamed, the contact rousing his body from paralysis. He kicked his foot out, heel connecting against the mannequin’s torso. It went flying through the air, before hitting the wall with a hollow thunk and falling to the floor, where it squirmed like a capsized worm. 

Donghyuck got his feet and ran for the front door. Just as he reached the door handle, a thin wire caught around his neck. It tightened and flung him backwards into the apartment. 

The wire dragged him down the hallway. It yanked him into the air until he was thrashing wildly in his air, choking and clawing at his windpipe. 

The marionette shivered angrily underneath him while he swung in the air like a pendulum, wooden joints clacking. More wires unfurled from the ceiling and twirled to the floor, ribbonlike. They snaked around his elbows and knees, latching onto his wrists, ankles, and shoulders. 

Donghyuck was unable to scream, so he let out a garbled choke as his arms were pulled backwards, bending— no, _tearing_ past their joints. Cutting ligaments, snapping bones, until his body was loose and dangled in the air like a stagnant puppet. 

He was dropped onto the floor with a sickening thud. 

Donghyuck sobbed, paralyzed because from fear and pain. He couldn't move any of his limbs. Something was bleeding.

The marionette climbed onto his chest and chittered, that same laugh made of wood and trinkets and bolts spinning in sockets. It gripped the corners of his mouth with tiny fingers, tugging the skin taut. 

Then it pulled. 

Stretching and stretching. Tearing skin, the muscles in his face ripping. Plastic wood sliding against the inner flesh of his throat, the marionette giggling—

And then it was inside him. 

**Author's Note:**

> tickle tickle
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/ssauerkraaut)  
> [curiouscat ](https://curiouscat.me/seungyeehaws)


End file.
